Kilns, and incinerators, for the treatment of numerous wastes have been known for many years. The necessity to treat municipal and industrial wastes has long been a problem, and now the treatment of industrial wastes is assuming a role of growning importance due to environmental factors.
In the oil producing states of this country, e.g., the problem of cleaning up waste oil pits is one of paramount importance, and is becoming acute. The quantity of waste oil contamination at oil field drilling sites has become a problem of immense magnitude, and the necessity of hauling the accumulated contaminated material from widespread areas of contamination to a central decontamination site aggravates the problem considerably.
In burning hazardous wastes the problem is particularly intense in that not only must these wastes be rapidly disposed of before harm can be done to the environment, but additionally when burning the hazardous materials the destruction of the chemicals must be sufficiently complete that the gases evolved from the combustion must be non-hazardous. To completely decompose most of these chemicals highly efficient, high temperature combustion is generally essential because incineration of most of these substances is relatively costly.